Highest Grossing Summer Blockbusters

The 25 Highest Grossing Summer Blockbusters Of All Time

Along with the change in temperature, promise of ice-cold popsicles, and trips to the beach, the summer blockbuster movie is the best part of winter’s demise. Heat, sand, and explosions — that’s how you do summer right. There’s something characteristically binding about the films released during the warm months; they’re always high-concept, high-octane, and paired with killer merchandise. And big, big business too: as of this writing, Jurassic World has now pulled in over $1.2 billion and counting.

Based on total gross income (domestic + foreign), we hand-picked some of the highest grossing blockbusters that have came out between May - August since the 1970s — plus a couple that we f*cking love — and ranked them all by how hard they get the blood pumping.

The Empire Strikes Back (1980) $538.4 million

After the triumphant success of Star Wars IV: A New Hope, it was set in stone that the sequel would have been a smash hit even if it was two straight hours of C-3PO spitting out British mumbo-jumbo. Fans and critics worldwide consider The Empire Strikes Back to be the best movie of the entire franchise, as well as the darkest movie of the franchise, but that didn’t stop the wild success of the film, earning over $500 million worldwide. With even more iconic sequences and lines than the prior film, The Empire Strikes Back was the pinnacle summer blockbuster that hooked fans on the franchise and kept them coming back for decades to come.

Shrek (2001) $484.4 million

Shrek is the movie on the list that makes you tilt your head and go “really?” But then, after you realize that it’s way more than “just a cartoon,” it starts to make more sense. With the rights to the book actually purchased by Steven Spielberg a full decade before its release, Shrek was in the makings for years — originally with Chris Farley taking the lead. After he passed away, Mike Myers stepped up to the challenge of completing the movie and made it what it is today: a friggin’ awesome adventure movie with the most charming donkey sidekick in the history of donkey sidekicks. It’s a movie for kids, but also kind of a movie for adults, as Rotten Tomatoes puts it: "While simultaneously embracing and subverting fairy tales, the irreverent Shrek also manages to tweak Disney's nose, provide a moral message to children, and offer viewers a funny, fast-paced ride."

Return of the Jedi (1983) $572.7 million

Return of the Jedi. It’s all there in the title. With Han Solo frozen in carbonite and the fate of the Rebel Alliance unknown, audiences needed serious closure with Episode VI. Little did they know, it would be 16 years before they would get another taste of sweet, sweeeeet Star Wars. The epic finale in the trilogy came out in late May in 1983 and was both a critical and commercial hit, grossing more than $500 million worldwide, and earning four out of four stars from Roger Ebert, who described it as “...fun, magnificent fun. The movie is a complete entertainment, a feast for the eyes and a delight for the fancy. It's a little amazing how Lucas and his associates keep topping themselves.” And, if you don’t count Attack of the Clones, Ebert’s argument stands!

Raiders of The Lost Ark (1981) $389.9 million

As the only movie on this list inducted into U.S. Library of Congress' National Film Registry as "culturally, historically, or aesthetically significant,” Raiders of the Lost Ark is both a classic summer blockbuster and an incredibly important movie for all action fans to watch. Harrison Ford as Indiana Jones upholds the perfect archetype of the action movie star: rugged, grumpy, perpetually in trouble, but just charming enough to get by — plus, how many dudes out there can outrun a massive rolling boulder?! Raiders of the Lost Ark, when adjusted for inflation, still remains one of the top twenty highest-grossing films ever made.

The Lion King (1994) $987.5 million

If you can recount the plot of The Lion King without choking up at one point, I applaud you. Raking in $422,783,777 in North America and $564,700,000 in other territories, The Lion King was a huge success in animation paired with a deeply heartfelt and complicated story. It will forever stand as a Disney classic, and is described as "Emotionally stirring, richly drawn, and beautifully animated” by Rotten Tomatoes. The life of Simba is described similarly to that of Hamlet, giving this cartoon layers deeper than most children’s films at the time had. I remember seeing this movie during the summer of 1994 and knowing I was watching something incredibly special.

Star Wars: Episode III - Revenge of the Sith (2005) $848.8 million

Remember when the word “Sith” wasn’t a part of our common vocabulary? Oh okay, because I don’t. Grossing nearly a billion dollars in sales, this triumphant last-movie-in-the-trilogy-but-not-that-trilogy beat Episode 1 + 2, even having the The New York Times saying it was "the best of the four episodes Mr. Lucas has directed," and equal to The Empire Strikes Back as "the richest and most challenging movie in the cycle." Diehard Star Wars fans will always stick by the originals, even though Revenge of the Sith earned a record $50 million on its opening day, but the distinct lack of Han Solo will always stick out in viewers’ brains at an unforgivable flaw.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, Part 2 (2011) $1.34 billion

Even people who’d never even picked up a Harry Potter book before were absolutely pumped for this long-awaited sequel to the franchise finale. This one had everything going for it, too — the kids had grown up, everyone’s hair was the appropriate length, and even the n00bs knew who Voldemort was and how hard his ass was going to get kicked. Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows killed it in the box office, making it the highest-grossing film of 2011 and the highest-grossing film based off a children’s book adaptation. In five days, this movie passed the $400,000,000 mark, which might not mean a lot to us non-writers, but probably made J.K. Rowling puke with happiness.

Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2009) $836.3 million

Another year, another Transformers movie — but can ya blame them? Getting people to watch these things is like shooting fish in a barrel. Regardless of Megan Fox’s reputation, it’s not exactly a chore to watch her on screen; watching Shia LaBeouf, on the other hand, is like watching two separate train wrecks a mile away happening at once, taking out smallers trains, cars, and tractor trailers along the way. Revenge of the Fallen made almost four times its budget in gross sales and made room for more (damn it, more?!) Transformers movies to be lovingly lapped up by the American public. America to Transformers = I wish I could quit you.

Spider-Man (2002) $821.7 million

Raise your hand if you’ve sat through the premiere of not one, but two brand new Spider-Man franchises. *Raises hand* When this reboot came out in 2002, it was clear that Spider-Man had a new face — less campy than his 70s counterpart, but not without the trademark nerdiness. Making $114,844,116 in the opening weekend and ending up with an overall gross of around $820 million, it became clear the Tobey Maguire was the only person in the world who could play Spider-Man... that is, of course, until Andrew Garfield took over the role a few years later. Regardless of who plays him, everybody knows J.K. Simmons as J. Jonah Jameson is irreplaceable.

Iron Man 3 (2013) $1.22 billion

There’s a reason why Marvel is so prominent on this list full of movies — the people over there know how to craft a blockbuster that appeals to both comic book nerds and normal folks alike. There’s not a person in the world who can’t identify with Tony Stark or — at least — really really wants to identify with him. As the first movie in the Iron Man trilogy to gross over a billion dollars, and the first not to be directed by Shane Black, Iron Man 3 is a certified summer blockbuster. Can’t help but make you wonder if it’s Robert Downey Jr. playing Tony Stark or vice-versa. The world will never know.

Jurassic Park (1993) $1.03 billion

1993 was the year of the dinosaur. Despite the magnificent and record-breaking opening of Jurassic World, the original will never be beaten. This insanely awesome movie is a testament to what animatronics, CGI, and Steven Spielberg can accomplish when working together. Despite years of production, several reworkings of the script, (one of the first drafts merged the characters of Alan Grant with Ian Malcolm) Jurassic Park came together and became the highest grossing film released worldwide, beating out E.T. — which was probably only bittersweet for Spielberg. Now, as Jurassic World continues to set recordswe know where it all started and fully accept that dinosaurs will one day inherit the earth.

Toy Story 3 (2010) $1.06 billion

There’s no beating around the bush here: Toy Story 3 was an absolutely incredible movie. This Oscar-nominated final movie in the Toy Story trilogy pulled at everyone’s heartstrings while simultaneously sending audiences into a nostalgia-induced haze and making us all weep for a bunch of damned toys! Gotta hand it to them for that. Earning $415,004,880 in North America and $648,167,031 overseas, Toy Story 3 absolutely killed it in the box office and became the highest-growing film of 2010 as well as topping the box office with $110,307,189, setting an opening-weekend record with Pixar films. Again, all from a movie about toys. Bravo.

Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (2006) $1.07 billion

The first Pirates of the Caribbean proved that you could, in fact, craft a movie based on nothing more than a ride. The second proved that following a fairly similar formula with the addition of a character with a tentacle-beard would prove a fruitful result. The critical response wasn’t as positive a first, with Rotten Tomatoes saying "Gone is Depp's unpredictability and much of the humor and originality of the first movie.” And you know what? We can’t help but agree — after a while, you just have Johnny Depp swaying around in a faux-drunk haze while a bunch of CGI pirates all d*ck around. They spend the whole time searching for treasure, but never realized that the real treasure was their blooming friendship. Jk lol.

Shrek 2 (2004) $919.8 million

Shrek 2 was the hit sequel to the original, featuring the voice work of Antonio Banderas, Julie Andrews, John Cleese, Rupert Everett, Joan Rivers, Larry King, and Jennifer Saunders...to name a few. The film spent 10 weeks in the weekly top 10 — over 21 weeks — beating out The Day After Tomorrow and grossing nearly a billion dollars total...not too bad for a cartoon about an ogre and a donkey. Some critics say it wasn’t as good as the original, but they clearly missed the part where Antonio Banderas as Puss in Boots gave that big, starry-eyed look up at the camera. Cinematic gold, people.

Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) $774.2 million

It’s hard to visualize the success of a movie where one of the main characters is a raccoon with a dirty Jersey accent, but leave it to Marvel to make it happen. With Chris Pratt as the film’s star Peter Quill/Star-Lord, and Bradley Cooper as the movie’s raccoon-in-question, Guardians of the Galaxyproved to be a massive hit for Marvel as the third highest-grossing film of 2014, raking in $160.7 million on its opening weekend. Not only was the movie itself a success, but the film’s soundtrack became the first successful album in history to reach the top of the Billboard 200 chart only consisting of previously released songs.

The Dark Knight (2008) $1.5 Billion

I rememberThe Dark Knight as one of the first Batman movies in a long time that people were really excited about. With a combined gross income of over one billion dollars (over one hundred billion pennies!) it’s fair to say that this was the movie that jump-started the franchise. It was Heath Ledger’s legendary portrayal of the Joker that made this the event of the summer. Michael Caine put it wisely: "Jack [Nicholson] was like a clown figure, benign but wicked, maybe a killer old uncle. He could be funny and make you laugh. Heath's gone in a completely different direction to Jack; he's like a really scary psychopath. He's a lovely guy and his Joker is going to be a hell of a revelation in this picture."

Marvel's The Avengers (2012) $1.52 billion

"Iron Man, Thor, Captain America, The Hulk and Black Widow? Match made in heaven!" At least, that’s what a good chunk of the nation thought when this blockbuster came out in April, 2012. The amalgamation of these Marvel giants made for a hell of a movie, quickly becoming the highest-grossing 2012 film and the highest-grossing comic-book adaptation ever released by the Walt Disney Studio. We’d like to think a large chunk of that goes to Robert Downey Jr. killing it as Iron Man. Receiving the much-coveted “A+” rating from CinemaScore, while Rolling Stone praised it as “...Transformers with a brain, a heart and a working sense of humor." It’s a movie that defines the summer blockbuster: fast, furious, and full of explosions.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012) $1.08 billion

The much anticipated sequel The Dark Knight was met with success, relying on several viral marketing campaigns and the critical response to the prior Batman film. With an all-star cast including Anne Hathaway, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, and Tom Hardy as the legendary Bane, The Dark Knight Rises earned $448 million in North America, and $636 million in other countries, totalling over one billion dollars, making it one the highest-grossing superhero films of all time. With Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad in the works, this title might be stripped soon; time will tell and, frankly, we can’t wait to see what happens.

Star Wars: Episode I -- The Phantom Menace (1999) $1.03 billion

As the first Star Wars film to come out after a 16-year hiatus, the success of this film is not a complete surprise. The Phantom Menace will historically be seen as a beautiful disaster — better than Attack of The Clones, not as good as Return of The Sith, and way worse than the original trilogy — but I digress. With way too much CGI, a laughably-awful main character, and Jar Jar f*cking Binks, there were some serious problems with this long-awaited prequel, but the crowds ate it up regardless. LucasFilm spent over $20 million on advertising, striking up deals with Hasbro, Lego and Pepsi, which certainly helped The Phantom Menace accrue the $1.027 billion it made at the box office. No matter what, you can always count on Star Wars to draw crowds; these guys have been doing it since the 70s.

Independence Day (1996) $817.4 million

Not only is Independence Day host to one of the best movie speeches of all time delivered by the President and de-facto long-lost twin of Bill Paxton, Bill Pullman, but it also evoked the very same high-concept, high-action vibes of Jaws with its timely release...around Independence Day. Coincidence? No, definitely not. With film giants like Will Smith and Goldblum kicking the crap out of aliens, this movie gave the entire nation something to cheer for and a renewed sense of patriotism. Some of the success can definitely be attributed to 20th Century Fox’s massive marketing campaign, airing its first $1.3 million theatrical trailer during Super Bowl XXX, but we all know it was Will Smith’s one-liners — specifically “WELCOME TO EARTH” — that made this movie what it was: f*cking epic.

Forrest Gump (1994) $677.9 million

There’s always some semblance of risk in releasing a movie as ambitious and off-the-cuff as Forrest Gump, but legend has it that both Spielberg and Hanks knew that this movie was going to murder the box office when they started principal photography...and boy were they right. While it wasn’t a box-office giant at first, earning over $329 million in the first 42 week in theaters, Forrest Gump soon became the fourth-highest grossing film of 1994 and an iconic piece of history that will forever be quoted. Roger Ebert put it best: "I've never met anyone like Forrest Gump in a movie before, and for that matter I've never seen a movie quite like Forrest Gump.”

Ghostbusters (1984) $295.2 million

First of all, let Ghostbusters be living proof that you can include a film’s full title in said film’s theme song. Secondly, the combination of Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, and Harold Ramis is a squad that will forever be regarded as one of the finest out there. Considered to be one of the best movies of 1984, Ghostbusters gave birth to a host of quotable lines (“We came, we saw, we kicked its ass!”), taught people to never cross their streams, and spawned some sequels that actually hold up to the original. With a reboot in the works, it’s clear this movie is still fresh in the minds of the American public. Let’s just all hope the remake doesn’t do to Ghostbusters what Mark Wahlberg did to Planet of the Apes — we trusted you, Marky Mark!

E.T. (June 11, 1982) $792.9 million

The ridiculously high number of Steven Spielberg films on this list is not a coincidence — the man knows how to make a movie. Not only did it surpass Star Wars in profits, but it also hugely boosted the The Hershey Company's sales because of the film’s use of Reese’s Pieces (an opportunity that M&M’s foolishly turned down), and earned Spielberg a staggering $500,000 a day in profits. It’s a hell of a movie, too — you’ve got everything you can ask for in an alien movie without even a lick of violence — save for the FBI agents with shotguns...which were to be later edited down into walkie-talkies through the re-release. E.T. is proof that a family-friendly movie can still kill it in the box office during the summer and, more surprisingly, Drew Barrymore can actually appear in a movie that doesn’t suck.

Star Wars: A New Hope (1977) $775.4 million

It’s hard to say if anybody knew what kind of impact Star Wars IV: A New Hope and the whole Star Wars franchise would make on the world as a whole. Immediately cementing itself as one of the first blockbusters released, this movie became an instant classic that still gets people’s hearts pumping today. Within weeks of its release, 20th Century Fox's stock price doubled to a record high, which warranted an unprecedented second opening at Mann's Chinese Theatre. Not only one of the best blockbusters of all time, but one of the best movies of all time — which can be easily confirmed by the scores of people you’ve inevitably met in your life brandishing lightsabers and dead set on winning the argument of whether or not Han shot first. For what it’s worth, he did...he definitely shot first.

Jaws (1975) $470.7 million

Jaws is considered to be the summer movie that started it all; the original high-concept summer film directed by the incomparable Steven Spielberg. Despite the myriad of problems that plagued the cast and crew during filming, Jaws soon overtook The Godfather as the highest-grossing film at the North American box office. A simple title, killer theme music and critical acclaim kept this movie afloat (water pun fully intended) and even Robert Ebert praised it as "a sensationally effective action picture.” Regardless of the abysmal sequels that followed, this outstanding movie stands as the film that made summer blockbusters a thing.